Denver's Initiative 300, 'Paid Sick Days Initiative,' Fails

Initiative 300, also billed as the 'Paid Sick Days' initiative, received a resounding 'no' from voters in yesterday's election.

According to the Denver Post, the issue was failing 64.5 percent to 35.5 percent late last night with the majority of ballots counted.

The initiative would have required employers to give workers paid sick days at a rate of one hour off per every 30 hours worked. Large businesses would have to supply up to nine days of paid leave; small businesses would have been capped at five.

Campaign for a Healthy Denver, a group behind the proposal, advocated the measure as simple commonsense. If workers can take paid sick leave when they are ill, they are less likely to spread their illness to coworkers and customers.

In addition to the National Restaurant Association, a group called Keep Denver Competitive fought the measure. Both groups painted the initiative as an extra expense at a time when restaurants--and the economy as a whole-are struggling.

The group told the HuffPost last week that, "Denver, in particular, is very problematic because they've gone to a ballot initiative," said Scott DeFife, executive vice president of policy and government affairs at the National Restaurant Association. "They've bypassed the city council, the mayor and all the local elected officials. If you want to have paid time off, going to a ballot initiative is the worst-case scenario for sound public policy."

DeFife added, "We're not really trying to debate whether workers in general should have time off when they're ill. This is about the specifics of the initiatives they've been advancing."

In a statement released Wednesday after the election, Campaign for a Healthy Denver spokesperson Erin Bennett said, "The people of Denver lost today - people like home health care nurse Patricia Hughes who was fired after calling in sick with pneumonia; Mandie Freyta, a Latina mother who lost a week's wages because she stayed home with her four children when they had the flu; and people like barista Laura Baker and bartender Eric Love, who have gone to work sick because they need to work every hour they can just to make the rent."

Comments

[AMSDen]

12:37 AM on 11/07/2011

It's called human rights. Apparently in your world, when human rights come up against businesses, the small human should lose every time. Part of running a business is balancing profits with human rights.

[pfreddie88]

04:49 PM on 11/02/2011

I grow more and more disapointed in Hickenlooper every day. He opposed to this bill pretty vocally. He is the most Republican Democrat I've ever seen. I cannot wait to vote him out of office.

[MrStat1]

01:33 PM on 11/02/2011

The people of Denver have spoken and this is what they want.

[acearle]

01:29 PM on 11/02/2011

According to Coloradans, the best way to avoid getting strep throat is to French kiss an infected person (brilliant, guys, simply brilliant...I KNOW that the Colorado drawer doesn't contain the sharpest knives, but haven't really gone out of my way to advertise that...clearly, you want it advertised).

[Dan Moore]

03:29 PM on 11/02/2011

You KNOW that huh? Do you KNOW that Boulder, CO is ranked as the MOST educated city in the USA?

[nunya2010]

01:46 PM on 12/17/2011

Actually, Colorado is the most educated state in the union. Highest level of college degrees per capita.

[progressafarians]

01:19 PM on 11/02/2011

Not no but ELL no!

[Libertardo]

01:00 PM on 11/02/2011

This was the silliest proposal ever. It's soooo cute to watch politicians and special interest groups that have never in their lives managed a business or a payroll, try to dictate "what's best". I'm so pleased this went down in flames.

[ColoradoTaxpayer]

01:39 PM on 11/02/2011

F&F